Surgical procedures such as colostomies, cystostomies, urostomies and ileostomies involve rerouting of the colon or ureter so that waste materials can be discharged through an artificial opening formed in the patient's body. This artificial opening, called a stoma, is typically located in the abdomen and may be about 0.5 to 1.0 inch or more in diameter.
However, since ostomy patients have no sphincter control over their stomas, a receptacle or bag must be worn under the clothing to collect waste materials which discharge involuntarily. Disposable and semi-disposable bags for such purposes are available from several commercial sources. The disposable bags come as assembled units which are easily applied to the body.
In general, the semi-disposable bags are less expensive but somewhat more difficult to apply. Such bags are attached to the body over the stoma by means of a ring-like member known as a face plate and a sealing ring of double sided adhesive which must be assembled and positioned over the stoma with some precision to achieve a reliable attachment and seal. After removal of the filled bag, the common practice in the past has been to first clean and dry the stoma and surrounding skin area before application of the sealing ring to the skin, followed by connection of the face plate to the sealing ring and then attachment of a new bag to the face plate. It is most important that the skin area surrounding the stoma be kept clean and dry during replacement of the bag to avoid infection and to achieve a good connection between the skin, sealing ring and face plate. Adhesive tape is sometimes applied over the edges of the face plate and sealing ring for extra reinforcement. It will be appreciated that inadvertent disconnection of a bag can cause considerable inconvenience and embarrassment to an ostomy patient.
The prior techniques for replacing such waste bags have thus been characterized by a relatively tedious procedure requiring performance of various material positioning, peeling and pressing steps with respect to a stoma that may be difficult for the patient to observe directly. To see the stoma clearly in some cases may require a mirror the manipulation of which, along with the steps mentioned above, can be difficult.
Recently, U.S. Pat. No. 4,187,850 issued to Charles F. Gust for an apparatus to facilitate centering a sealing ring about a stoma while simultaneously keeping the surrounding skin area clean and dry by absorbing any waste material seeping from the stoma. The Gust apparatus, however, merely facilitates attachment of the sealing ring to the skin and is not adapted for remote preassembly of the sealing ring and face plate and then attachment of the resultant assembly to the body.
A need thus exists for an apparatus on which a sealing ring and face plate can be preassembled, and with a portion of which the resultant assembly can be quickly and easily guided into precise position while any waste material seeping from the stoma is simultaneously absorbed.